Gov. Nathan Deal has called up an additional 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to assist state and local authorities with the emergency response to Hurricane Matthew.

This doubles the number of activated state national guard troops to 2,000, Deal announced via his official Twitter account.

A weakening, but still powerful Matthew continues to move north off the Georgia coast near Savannah and its center is forecast to move near or over the South Carolina coast Saturday morning, the National Hurricane Center reports.

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